2008 Woodie Awards
UTC drops match to Blue Raiders
By Kavita Thakkar
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Sports
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Chattanooga, which is now 1-1 in the season after beating Lipscomb a couple of weeks ago, was only able to muster a single point against the Blue Raiders, who beat them 6-1.
The Mocs started out slowly in the doubles section, which saw all three matchups go south for the Mocs who lost all three in sets of 8-4, 8-6, and 8-3, giving MTSU a one point advantage going into the singles matches.
There was good news on the horizon, however, as the first singles match of the contest pitted Peter Sauska against MTSU's Chris Nowak in the No. 3 seed. Sauska handily won the match with a score of 6-0, 6-1, the largest margin of victory in any of the singles matches.
The win put UTC at a tie with the Blue Raiders, but it was short-lived as the Mocs couldn't manage another win
"Although we lost, the team played very well and kept it as close as they could, MTSU is a different level of tennis which we hope to achieve," said coach Carlos Garcia. "There was a good performance but the score went from 1-1 to 1-4 very quickly."
Chattanooga was able to challenge in the first two spots for victory, but ended up losing both matches. At the No. 1 spot, Badr Bouadbellah played it close with MTSU's John Peers. Bouabdellah took Peers to a second set tiebreaker before losing the match 7-5, 7-6.
At No. 2, Razvan Axente won the first set handily at 2-6 but was unable to keep up the momentum as Marc Rocafort fought back to a win of 6-1 in the second set and a 6-2 tiebreaker set.
The bottom seeds were less kind to the Mocs. Pavel Vostrikov was defeated at No. 4 by MTSU's Morgan Richard 6-2, 6-3. At No. 5, Richard Cowden defeated UTC's Hasan Hamadeh, 6-1, 6-2. Alex McCann was a 6-3, 7-5 winner over Rick van de Bovemkamp at No. 6.
Garcia has set several goals and expectations for this team. "We would like achieve a winning record in the conference so we can be positioned between 4-6 in SoCon tournament," Garcia said.
To prepare for future matches this season, Garcia is still tinkering on his team lineup.
"This past weekend was a good experience for the team but we have an even better weekend coming up. We will play three matches in two days all at similar levels," Garcia said.
The men's tennis team will play in Richmond, Ken., Feb. 1-2. They will compete against Eastern Kentucky, Indiana State, and Wright State.
